Dustin Hoffman has described how dressing as a woman for 1982 film Tootsie made him realize he is 'brainwashed' about the typical notion of female beauty.

In a 2012 interview that has resurfaced this week, the 75-year-old said that the movie opened his eyes to the unrealistically high expectations placed on women's physical appearance.

Mr Hoffman told the American Film Institute that transforming into a woman who was not conventionally attractive made him realize he had spent a lifetime judging women by their looks.

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Emotional: In a 2012 interview that has resurfaced this week, Dustin Hoffman chokes back tears as he opens up about feeling 'brainwashed' about the typical notion of female beauty

Epiphany: The 75-year-old said dressing as a woman in 1982 film Tootsie opened his eyes to the unrealistically high expectations placed on women's physical appearance

'I went home and started crying,' he recounted, explaining that he told his wife that he knew then that he had to make this movie.

When she asked why, he responded:
'Because I think I am an interesting woman when I look at myself on
screen. And I know that if I met myself at a party, I would never talk
to that character,' he confessed.

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'Because she doesn't fulfill physically the demands that we're brought up to think women have to have in order to ask them out.'

'There's too many interesting women I have not had the experience to know because I have beenbrainwashed'

The actor then choked back tears as he recounted the realization that he had at that time.

'There's too many interesting women I have. . . not had the experience to know in this life because I have been brainwashed,' he says he told his wife.

The father-of-six, who has been
married to his attorney wife Lisa for 32 years, said that he asked to do
a make-up test before signing onto the film, because he wanted to make
sure he could make for a convincing woman.